Late Blight : Nightmare of tobacco farmer

Tobacco is an important commercial crop cultivated in an area of 0.4 million ha producing annually around 700 million kg of cured leaf out of which 260 M kg is Flue Cured Virginia tobacco . India is the 3rd largest producer of tobacco in the world after China and Brazil. The crop provides employment to about 36 million people directly or indirectly including 6 million farmers in the country. India ranks 5th largest exporter of tobacco in the world after Brazil, USA, Malawi and Turkey. The crop fetches annually around Rs.1,713 crores as foreign exchange through exports and over Rs. 9,100 crores as excise revenue. An estimated 250 million people in the country use tobacco in different forms. Ninety three varieties including FCV , Burley , Natu , Lanka , Chewing , Bidi , Cheroot , Cigar , Hookah & chewing types have been released for farming community. For tobacco 50-100cm annual rainfall and 15-20o C temperature during growth period is ideal. Tobacco cannot stand if rainfall is more than 100cm. After harvesting to dry the leaves it requires bright sunshine & dry weather but not less than containing 8% moisture. Too dry weather is not suitable as leaves break into small pieces. Different types of soil are required for tobacco. Bidi tobacco is grown as a rainfed crop mostly in alluvial soils, black clayey or loamy soils.

Like every crop , tobacco is susceptible to diseases. Crop disease involves any harmful deviation or alteration from the normal functioning of the physiological processes. Diseased tobacco crop suffer disturbances from normal life processes and it’s vital functions . In an attempt to reach high yields and healthy crop, tobacco farmers throughout the world struggle to prevent and eradicate various diseases. Such as hazardous disease is Late blight. True to its name, the disease occurs later in the growing season with symptoms often not appearing until after blossom. Late blight first appears on the lower, older leaves as water-soaked, gray-green spots. All above-ground parts of tobacco plants can become infected. Foliar infections start out as small, water-soaked lesions that enlarge rapidly and become pale green. Eventually the leaves dry up and die. Severely infected plants can die. On the underside of leaves, growth of a white mold becomes visible on the lesions. As the disease matures, these spots darken and a white fungal growth forms on the undersides. Eventually the entire plant will become infected. Crops can be severely damaged. High soil moisture and moist weather conditions with intermittent showers are responsible for the development of disease.

Protecting the crops from diseases is a dream of every tobacco farmer who wishes to see the best result, and HPM is always working for fulfill the every farmers dream. Hitalaxyl is a best way to prevent tobacco crop from the hazardous disease late blight . It is a broad spectrum fungicide which controls diseases by its preventive as well as curative action. It is a broad spectrum activity against diseases like Downy Mildew, Early Blight, Late Blight, Tikka, White rust, Alternaria blight, Damping off, Brown and black rust, Blast, etc. Hitalaxyl is a wettable powder containing a mixture of the systemic fungicide Metalaxyl and the contact fungicides Mancozeb. Quick uptake and trans-location towards emergent tips helps to protect the plant from diseases for longer period of approximately 14 days. It is recommended to spray Hitalaxyl at the commencement of the disease symptoms/ at apparent moment of disease incidence. At recommended rates, Hitalaxyl is compatible with most other commonly used insecticides and fungicides except lime sulphur.

HPM’s Contribution :

From the beginning HPM is Saving the yields and protecting the crops from pest and diseases by its best quality agrochemicals . HPM is enthusiastic about changing farmer’s lives. We are courageous in both decision and action. And we believe that better quality agrochemical means a better agriculture. We focus on finding new techniques that help farmers in their farming. At HPM , our first and crucial step in crop protection is knowledge. we ensure that very farmer should be aware of susceptibility of the crop to certain diseases. HPM is effectively associated with education drives with regards to spreading awareness about enhanced and better farming practices.